Embellished Prints and Thrifted Frames
“Pansies” - an embellished print! A print of mine from 2019, that’s been reworked with marker, colored pencils, and paint pen. (August 2023)
If you ready my previous blog post, you might remember that I created a short term plan for myself with 3 to-dos. Here they are just to give you (and also me a recap)…
draw or paint on my iPad everyday ~ I’ll share progress to Instagram so you can see, too!
focus on building my Etsy shop with art reproductions (canvas and paper prints, framed art, mugs, pillows, etc.)
move into a house :-)
I’m very much a list person, so I love having things written out and checking them off as I go. I’ve definitely been drawing every day. Mostly on my iPad, but I also FINALLY bought some Posca paint markers and they are a DREAM! They pair wonderfully over colored pencils, and I’ve had so much fun embellishing old art prints from my stash. Below is a photo of one of my “Desert Rose” prints, embellished with marker, prismacolors, and finished with posca paint markers! I can’t believe how much the prices really brought this piece to life. In the coming months, I definitely want to do this with other leftover prints from my inventory.
As for my Etsy shop - it’s coming along! As of writing this post, I have 36 active listings!! Never before has my Etsy shop been this full! For reference… I started selling on Etsy in 2013. It never really took off with sales, but I also wasn’t consistently managing it. I’d post a few paintings, share them on social media here and there, but mostly I let it sit idle. I never has more than 20 listings up, and now I’m close to 40!! Etsy is sort of weird when it comes to bringing people to your shop though… I haven’t had too many sales there yet. Everything I read says it takes time to build an audience and gain momentum, but once that happens then it gets easier. I’m enjoying the process! If you’d like to check it out, have a visit and let me know what you think:
Lastly, an update on the house. We close on our new house TOMORROW! It’s perfect, and I can’t wait to hang up some art and set up my new studio space. We’ll move into the house a few weeks from now, and then the fun begins!
That’s it for now on my studio updates, but I’ll leave you with one more picture, a tiny piece of art in a thrifted gold frame. If either of the pieces pictured in this blog are calling your name, I’ll post a link to each of them under the pics.
I’m glad you’re here!
-Mara
A tiny framed embellished print, using the same techniques in the first photo! Actual size of the framed art piece is approximately 3” across. T
